Philips unveiled a brand-new product, the Philips OneBlade electric shaver, in the Nordic countries in fall of 2017. In Finland, the winner of the competitive bid for the launch of the new product was BrandBuddy Group, which deployed the product to Citymarkets throughout the country—to each store simultaneously.

“The customer wanted the promotions to be in all of their stores at the same time. That created some work for recruitment, because the capital region, for example, has many stores. It was a challenge to place really good, sales-oriented people into every store. BrandBuddy was centrally in charge of finding people, along with one of our other usual partners. Everything worked out really well, despite the challenges,” says Kati Partanen, Trade Marketing Manager at Philips.

BrandBuddy deployed the OneBlade to stores according to instructions from Philips. There were two products, the actual electric shaver, and the additional blades that were sold separately. Many sales promotion visits were made to Citymarkets from fall until the end of the year.

“BrandBuddy took care of all of the coordination related to the launch, the recruitment of promoters and their joint training, where our lead promoter and I were involved as instructors. They also took care of the reporting, as well as the million things that an extensive event like this requires to operate,” Partanen elaborates.

“The products flew off the shelves!”

The goal of the sales promotion events was clear: to sell every single product!

“The products flew off the shelves, so our objective was very successful. One might even say, problematically successful, because we finally had to tell customers we were sold out. I recall that usually there is one store where the goals do not pan out, but this time there was none. The sales were top notch, and everyone reached their goals, even though the product was brand new,” Kati Partanen beams.

Partanen is pleased with BrandBuddy’s expertise and project management.

“Communication was very smooth the whole time, and there was not one moment where we were in the dark about the process. We felt that, as customers, we were treated very nicely,” Kati Partanen says.

According to Partanen, the promotion was significant for the successful launch of the new product. The intermediate form between a shaver and a razor interested customers, and the product clearly has its space in the market.

“All in all, the promotion was the most significant activity related to accelerating the sell out. We did many other things related to promoting the sales, such as provided store materials, but the total campaign was the most substantial way to make a completely new product familiar to consumers,” she states.

BrandBuddy still manages the displays and in-store visibility for OneBlade.

“I can recommend BrandBuddy’s services. They handle things very well there and attend to customer needs. They listen to the customer and want to keep the customer happy. Above all, everyone at BrandBuddy wants to deliver results to their customer!” Kati Partanen, Trade Marketing Manager, Philips.